Sunday, August 13, 2006

Deutscher Ring Aquatics 2006 - results

Despite announcements from Dutch and German television, nothing was broadcasted last night, except for a short clip of Britta Steffen on ZDF (German TV).

Pieter van den Hoogenband didn't break any records or won any race. This was expected, considering his struggle to get back in shape on the 100m and 50m and the fact that his turning points are still not his strong suit.

Roland Schoeman is more of a short track specialist and he proved his great form on Saturday. He's the first swimmer this weekend to break a world record (short track record, which is always faster than long track thanks to more turning points and under water techniques). He is the first man to break the 21 second barrier on the 50m freestyle: 0:20:98!

And this was only in the semifinals... In the finals he won the race in 0:21:28, Mark Foster came in second and Johan Kenkhuis (former relay team mate of VDH) finished third in 0:21:89. Pieter van den Hoogenband finished in 0:22:27.

So far the 21 seconds barrier had only been broken in split times at relay races, which Johan Kenkhuis and Pieter van den Hoogenband both managed to do in the past.

Schoeman was also superior at the 100m event: 0:46:70 (world best time for this year, no world record). Pieter van den Hoogenband finished in third place in 0:48:50.